Little remains on Feb. 13, 2013, of the Big Bear cabin where fugitive Christopher Dorner killed himself after a shootout with authorities and subsequent fire the day before. (Photo by John Valenzuela/San Bernardino Sun)

The manhunt for Christopher Dorner

A communication breakdown and overzealous police officers who flocked to the San Bernardino Mountains wanting to be the ones who captured disgraced former Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner made a dangerous situation even more dangerous, according to a report released Monday by a Washington DC-based law enforcement think tank.

The Police Foundation released its 120-page report, “Police Under Attack,” following a six-month investigation into the historic manhunt, which spanned five Southern California counties and ended on Feb. 12, 2013, near Angelus Oaks with Dorner taking his own life. It is the most comprehensive report released to date on the Dorner manhunt, and includes a nearly 30-page detailed narrative of the incident.

Though critical in terms of officer self-deployment and the difficulties in communication between multiple law enforcement agencies, the report praised law enforcement’s professionalism and heroism during the intense 10-day manhunt that kept Southern California on edge during the first two weeks of February.

Key recommendations from the report include establishing better lines of communication between law enforcement agencies across county lines and implementing more stringent policies on officer self-deployment during critical incidents.

During the Feb. 12, standoff between Dorner and a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team in the mountains, officers from other agencies began arriving in droves wanting to assist. Some officers stood on a ridge pointing their rifles downhill at the cabin in which Dorner had holed himself up, becoming a hindrance and potential danger to the deputies below, according to the report.

“The problem was they didn’t know where the deputies were on the inner and outer perimeter,” Police Foundation president and former Redlands Police Chief Jim Bueermann said Monday. “They were pointing downhill into the area where they thought the suspect was. The problem was, there were deputies in that area. Fortunately, another tragedy didn’t occur.”

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Small teams of officers were conducting searches on the mountain and deliberately working outside the scope of their mission so they could be the ones who captured Dorner, according to the report.

“While these officers acknowledged they were working independently and outside of established missions guidelines and policies, the desire to capture the suspect appeared to outweigh training, policies and common sense,” the report states. “What these officers failed to realize is they needlessly put themselves and others in harm’s way and that made the event more complicated.”

The report, intended to serve as an educational tool for law enforcement agencies nationwide, recommends that police agencies address the self-deployment issue “head-on and give clear and unequivocal direction prohibiting self-deployment” before events of such magnitude.

“That was a significant challenge for us,” San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said Monday. “Officers from all over Southern California truly were interested in doing the right thing, but the result was it inhibited us from doing what we needed to do on the 12th.”

He said a two-mile stretch of Highway 38 was lined, in both directions, with police officers from other agencies trying to get up the mountain, blocking access to the Sheriff’s Department personnel who were trying to get equipment up the mountain. A tractor on a flatbed truck that the SWAT team had called for had to be removed from the truck and driven up the mountain due to the roadblock, McMahon said.

Despite the potential harm posed by self-deployment, some responding agencies provided unique resources to assist in the manhunt. One unnamed agency had the ability to track predator animals in the wild to identify pack behavior associated with feeding, which may have occurred if Dorner had perished in the freezing wilderness. Another agency with high altitude aerial infrared capabilities searched the back country for signs of life, according to the report.

The Dorner manhunt began in Irvine with the execution-style shootings of Monica Quan, the daughter of retired LAPD Capt. Randal Quan, and her fiance, Keith Lawrence. It branched out to San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties over a 10-day period.

“This incident illustrates how difficult it gets when an incident transcends county lines,” Bueermann said. “The geography of this case very much tells the story.”

Law enforcement agencies should develop closer relationships with other law enforcement agencies, especially neighboring ones, plan ahead for mobilization, and bolster training in the National Incident Management System — a nationwide system for integrating organizations and their resources, according to the report.

The rampant use of social media during the Dorner manhunt also revealed a number of policy issues law enforcement agencies must now address, according to the report.

Aside from establishing a protocol to counter public appeals made online, as Dorner did with his rambling Facebook manifesto, public affairs divisions must embrace the phenomenon of social media and establish an easily accessible Facebook page and Twitter account, the Police Foundation recommended, pointing out in its report that Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis used Twitter very effectively during the Boston Marathon bombing to disseminate accurate information to the public and counter rampant inaccurate information.

Dorner’s rampage was triggered by what he alleged was his wrongful termination from the LAPD. After an unsuccessful appeal to regain employment, he penned his Facebook manifesto and launched his reign of terror across Southern California.

San Bernardino County Deputy Jeremiah MacKay was killed and Deputy Alex Collins seriously wounded in the deadly standoff. Dorner also killed Riverside Police Officer Michael Crain and seriously wounded his partner, Andrew Tachias, on Feb. 7. Those shootings occurred about 15 minutes after Dorner took shots at two Los Angeles police officers who were staking out Dorner in Corona, where one of his suspected targets lived, authorities said.

The Police Foundation believes that the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department could have benefitted from more urban-type search techniques, such as using search dogs trained in tracking armed suspects. Such dogs could have helped flush Dorner from the vacant Big Bear Lake condominium he hid in for five days.

“The blending of mountain search and rescue with urban search and apprehend techniques would have provided much improved officer safety,” according to the report.

McMahon said two bloodhounds have since been housed at the department’s Rancho Cucamonga substation.

McMahon also acknowledged that his department needs to broaden its social media horizons. Fifteen months after the Dorner incident, the department still does not have Twitter and Facebook accounts.

“They’re working on our Twitter as we speak, and we have drastically increased our presence on Nixle and have been moving stuff out on a regular basis,” said McMahon. “We’ll continue to work on increasing our presence with social media.”

The LAPD was tasked with warning people targeted by Dorner, mainly current and former LAPD officers/employees. The task spanned multiple county lines, and the department did not have the resources to properly address the issue. In addition, the two LAPD officers assigned to stake out the home of one of Dorner’s targets in Corona had to borrow a cell phone to make a 911 call when they were under attack by Dorner, making it clear that law enforcement agencies need to be more aggressive in devising communications plans for officers who are out of their jurisdiction, according to the report.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said in a statement Monday that his department has already begun work on implementing the recommendations made by the Police Foundation.

“As we review this report, and continue to re-evaluate our law enforcement response, let us not forget the lives that were lost, and the families that were torn apart by this killer,” Beck said in his statement. “We are profoundly grateful to our law enforcement partners throughout the region, for their tireless work, cooperation, and their willingness to literally put their lives on the line to end this murderer’s rampage.”

When Riverside Officer Crain was killed and his partner wounded by Dorner, Police Department personnel received much of the ongoing information on the case from outside sources. Much of the communication void was the result of gatekeepers in the chain of command either filtering information or failing to communicate information they had, according to the report.

When Dorner’s burning pickup was found abandoned in Big Bear Lake, the Riverside and Irvine police departments had a dispute over who would have control of the burned truck for forensic purposes. Ultimately they agreed to work together on building the case against Dorner, but it served as an example of the need for better collaboration by line officers at the onset of a complex and emotional incident, according to the Police Foundation report.

Riverside Police Chief Sergio G. Diaz said in a statement Monday that the Police Foundation’s review of the events of last February will help all law enforcement agencies refine their responses to major incidents.

“Large multi-jurisdictional events that span several days are very complex problems that merit serious and profound analysis,” Diaz said. “These critical incidents invariably offer us opportunities for reflection and refinement of procedures. All of American law enforcement has the opportunity for process improvement by studying the report”.

McMahon joined Diaz and Beck in acknowledging the Police Foundation’s thorough work, and what it potentially means to the future of law enforcement.

“We certainly appreciate the Police Foundation and the work that they did ...” McMahon said. “We can always learn from significant events like these.”